USA > California > A history of California: the American period > Part 11
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Independence prepared to take the road for Oregon and California. A few months later, Sutter predicted the arrival of "more as one thousand souls" before the end of summer, and of other thousands within the year. Well informed American residents of the province also thought that two or three thousand of their countrymen would be in Cali- fornia before the close of 1846. At various times, more exaggerated rumors spread along the coast that ten or twenty thousand emigrants were already westward bound; and a far-visioned editor of the New York Sun foretold the coming of a hundred thousand persons by the spring of 1846!
Behind these estimates, exaggerated as they appear, were a number of sober facts that gave color to all but the most fanciful of the predictions. Not only was actual immigra- tion assuming considerable proportions; but several forces, quietly working to stimulate the settlement of California by Americans, gave every indication of early success. The United States government, through its exploring expeditions,2 furnished invaluable information to prospective emigrants and also lent a semi-official encouragement to the American settlement of the province. More important still, the active propaganda begun some years before by American residents of California to draw settlers to the coast, was now at flood- tide and its effects were everywhere evident throughout the American States.
Some of the propagandist literature of 1845 and 1846 was in book form-a type best represented by Alfred Robin- son's readable and widely circulated Life in California. The author had been for many years resident agent of the Boston firm of Bryant and Sturgis; and though the volume first appeared anonymously, it was known to have been written by some one thoroughly familiar with California life. The book was published in the early part of 1846 and immediately created a profound impression. Its effect can best be summed up in the words of a review in Hunt's Merchant's Magazine.
2 See Chapter XI.
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"When we reflect," said the writer of the article, "that the superb region of California is adequate to the sustaining of twenty millions of people; has for several hundred years been in the pos- session of an indolent and limited population, incapable from their character of appreciating its resources-that no improvement can be expected under its present control, we cannot but hope that thousands of our fellow countrymen will pour in and acceler- ate the happy period (which the work before us assures us cannot be far distant) when Alta California will become part and parcel of our great confederation; and the cry of Oregon is only a pre- cursor to the actual settlement of this more southern, more beau- tiful, and far more valuable region."
Other magazines and newspapers, such as Nile's Register, the North American Review, the Journal of Commerce, and the New York Sun-to mention only a few at random- aided materially in this California publicity campaign. In the eastern states there was much talk of a trans-continen- tal railroad (for Asa Whitney's plan had already been laid before Congress), with its terminus at Monterey; and vari- ous routes from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific began to be spoken of in the daily papers. The vacant lands of the province also came in for much favorable comment; and young men, long before Horace Greeley's classic admoni- tion, were urged to emigrate to California and grow up with the country. The inducements to land-hungry or adventur- ous spirits along this line were certainly not unattractive.
"A foreigner," said a typical article in the New York Sun, "can become a citizen of California by obtaining two signatures to his petition. He then possesses the right to take up vacant land, and may secure as much as eleven square leagues upon the payment of twenty-six dollars in fees. Many grants held by such owners are thirty three miles long by three miles wide."
The newspapers of the extreme western states not only concerned themselves with articles descriptive of Califor- nia's resources and attractions, but also published every- thing obtainable regarding emigration to the province. The opening of some short-cut or a new route; the departure
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of an overland train; or the organization of a California company were subjects in which every western editor showed decided interest. Not infrequently, for example, such an item as the following would appear in a local newspaper, to be widely copied and commented upon by other papers of the frontier:
"FOR CALIFORNIA-A large party of settlers propose to leave Arkansas for California, next May. The chairman of the Committee of Arrangements gives notice in the Little Rock Gaz- ette that the Californians will rendezvous at Fort Smith, Arkansas, on the first Monday in April next, preparatory to taking up the line of march for the Pacific Coast. Every person starting is ex- pected to be well armed with a rifle or heavy shotgun, sixteen pounds of shot or lead, four pounds of powder, etc."
The inspiration for much of this California publicity came from California itself. In the province were several Americans, eager, for various reasons, to hasten the tide of immigration. Nearly all of these carried on a regular cor- respondence with friends still resident in the "States," writing in such a vein that their letters would find ready publication in local newspapers, and perhaps in more widely circulated magazines, as well.
One or two of these interested Americans, moreover, wrote directly for eastern publications, and were in fact responsi- ble for a large part of the information regarding California matters which reached the United States before the Mexican War. By far the most important service of this kind was rendered by Thomas O. Larkin of Monterey. Reaching California in 1832, Larkin had built up an important com- mercial and trading business along the coast, and in 1843 was appointed United States consul to California.
Since Larkin was thoroughly acquainted with the econ- omic and political conditions of the province, his letters were eagerly sought after by a number of the best known American newspapers when public attention began to turn to California. The New York Sun made him a regular correspondent; and the New York Herald, the Journal of
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Commerce, and the Boston Advertiser, all published his letters at frequent intervals. Of the practical nature of Larkin's articles from the settler's standpoint, the following serves as an illustration:
"Emigrants leaving Independence for the Pacific" he wrote, "should furnish themselves (if a family of five or six persons) with one good wagon, four or five yoke of oxen, three or four cows, three horses, and to each grown person 250 lbs. of flour, 150 lbs. of bacon, 30 lbs. of coffee, 50 lbs. of sugar, 20 lbs. of rice, two good blankets, and a few cooking utensils. Every male person over fourteen years of age should have one good rifle, 10 pounds of powder, 20 pounds of lead, 2000 percussion caps and a good horse. On arriving on the banks of the Sacramento and finding a convenient piece of land that the emigrant can occupy, he should begin sowing wheat from December to February; beans, peas and corn in April or May, and should also procure for himself cows two years old, worth from $4.00 to $5.00; young bulls at $2.00 or $3.00; thirty or forty mares at $5.00 or $6.00; a stallion at $15.00 or $20.00; and a few sheep at $2.00 each. One hundred young cows will produce from seventy to ninety calves between the second and twelfth months; from one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars in cash will start an enter- prising man in breeding animals for a California farm.
In a few years the settler may find purchasers for produce from among the emigrants and throughout the country. In time he will find a market in the Sandwich Islands, North West Coast, San Blas, Mazatlan, and elsewhere. Wheat produces from forty to fifty fold under the most imperfect cultivation. The Spanish Padres for many years obtained one hundred fold at some of the missions. One hundred and eighty fold was once gathered at the mission of San José. Wild oats and mustard cover the country, the former from three to four feet high, the latter so high and com- pact that it is impossible for a traveller to find his horses when they stray among it. Rye and Buckwheat have not been proved. Hemp was raised by the former Padres. Cotton has been proved to advantage, but no quantity has been planted. Every kind of vegetable yet planted has produced well. Apples, pears, quinces and peaches are common all over California. In parts of the coun- try there are limes, oranges, almonds, figs and walnuts. Plums and cherries have not been introduced. Grapes of the very best quality are found in the greatest abundance in different sections
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of the country. Latitude south of 34 degrees produces the best. With imperfect means good wine could be produced and distilled. The climate of California is surpassed by no other. The lowest rate of the thermometer in the shade at Monterey in 1845 was 44 degrees, the highest 86 degrees; from 60 to 70 is the common rate throughout the year."
Besides this campaign of education, the American resi- dents of California found at least one other field for their activities. It will be recalled that Fort Hall occupied a most strategic position on the route of travel from Missouri to the coast. Here the trail to the Pacific divided, one branch leading on to Oregon, while the other ran to Cali- fornia. Most of the western emigrants started from the Missouri with Oregon as their objective; but at Fort Hall they were sure to meet discouraging reports of the northern country and of the route thither. California, on the con- trary, they heard spoken of only in glowing terms; and as a consequence many a settler changed his destination from the Columbia to the Sacramento. In this method of obtain- ing recruits the efforts of the California enthusiasts were supplemented by the officials of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Hall, who wished to keep the northwest territory unoccupied as long as possible. Naturally, the Oregon sup- porters did not take kindly to the arrangement, and accord- ingly organized a committee to counter-act the California propaganda.
The publicity which California received during 1845 and the early part of 1846, was expected, as already indicated, to bear large fruit. Nor is there any question but that these expectations would have been in large measure real- ized had the Mexican War not altered the whole course of California history and temporarily diverted the stream of immigration. Even before the outbreak of this conflict, apparently well founded rumors spoke of the planting of a great Mormon colony west of the Sierras; and after the open- ing of hostilities, more than one company of determined settlers pushed their way across the mountains.
To this period belongs, in many respects, the most tragic
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story of California annals. In the early spring of 1846, a party of nearly a hundred persons, organized chiefly in San- gamon County, Illinois, by George and Jacob Donner and James F. Reed, left Independence, Missouri, on the trail to California. On the road, this company was joined by several smaller detachments until at one time it consisted of nearly two hundred persons. Nothing occurred on the route of unusual incident until the emigrants reached Fort Bridger. Here, after four days of discussion, the party divided, the larger number of emigrants going by way of Fort Hall, while the remainder, eighty-seven in all, decided to take the newly discovered Hastings' Cut-Off along the south side of the Salt Lake, re-uniting with the Fort Hall route on the Humboldt.
With the larger company all went well. Following the somewhat longer, but well known, clearly defined route, they reached California in safety and without noteworthy hard- ship. The smaller company, with George Donner in com- mand, met with no such fortunate escape. In seeking to reach the south side of the lake, so many formidable obsta- cles were encountered that nearly a month of precious trav- elling time was lost, and the strength of men and animals alike so seriously reduced as to render progress for the rest of the journey extremely slow.
Autumn was already at hand before the company left the vicinity of the lake to cross the wide intervening desert and the Sierra Nevada into California. So late in the season, the passage of the mountains was accompanied by extreme risk, which a slight mischance might easily turn into over- whelming disaster. Among the Donner emigrants condi- tions were ripe for such an eventuality. The stock was worn out, food was scarce, and the nerves of men and women frayed almost to the breaking point.
Criticisms and quarrels, at least one of which resulted in a dismal tragedy, became the accepted order. Through mis- fortune and inefficiency so many cattle were lost that wagon after wagon had to be abandoned and many of the women and children compelled to walk. One or two deaths oc-
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curred, and the whole caravan was on the verge of starva- tion when they were met, near the present site of Reno, Nevada, by a relief party sent out by Sutter at the request of two members of the expedition who had gone on ahead to secure aid. Under favorable conditions the food thus ob- tained would have carried the emigrants across the Sierras; but a few days' delay to rest the cattle, and an early fall of snow, prepared the way for the final tragedy.
Late in October the company had succeeded in reaching a camp on Prosser Creek, three miles from the modern Truckee City. Here the snow caught them, before its nor- mal time. In the face of this catastrophe the emigrants lost their self-control. Each family sought safety after its own plan. Unity and co-operation were forgotten. Wagens pressed forward or remained behind, as individual judgment decided or necessity determined. By November first, how- ever, most of the company had reached the shores of that beautiful lake which the tourist sees today from the Central Pacific trains that wind above it.
Beyond this lake, for most of the emigrants, there was no escape. Sutter's Fort, with its abundance of food, and the warm, fruitful plains of the Sacramento lay a hundred miles away. The intervening mountains were already covered with several feet of snow, which each succeeding storm made more hopelessly impassable than its predecessor. All about the emigrants, already exhausted and half starved, a rugged wall of rock and snow sprang abruptly from the level of the lake and interposed an effective check to further progress.
Several attempts were made at the outset by the more energetic members of the party to escape from this natural prison; but the snow and the steepness of the mountains defeated every effort. Nothing remained but to winter there in the heart of the Sierras. Two camps were es- tablished about six miles apart. A few log shacks were erected, but most of the company lived only in crude shelters of boughs and canvas, banked with snow. Almost the only food available was the flesh of the cattle the emigrants had brought with them. It was agreed that these should all
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be killed and the meat carefully husbanded for the long months ahead. The night of this decision, however, a heavy storm came up which lasted for several days; and when this cleared away, most of the cattle had disappeared. Seek- ing whatever shelter was available, they had taken refuge under bushes and overhanging boughs, only to be buried a dozen feet beneath the drifting snow.
The bodies of some of these animals were afterwards found. But a considerable number could not be located; and where every ounce of food was needed, this loss was irreparable. Of game the immigrants had practically none. The deer of course had long since sought the lower levels where they could find grass. Bear seem to have been fairly numerous, but the men were either too discouraged or exhausted to hunt them successfully. Little meal, flour, or sugar remained after the six months' journey across the plains. From the very outset, the unfortunate emigrants were face to face with starvation.
The account of the bitter days through which the Donner party passed has no parallel in American literature. Seventy- nine persons began the winter at the lake. Of these, twenty were men; fourteen were women; thirty-eight were children, and seven were nursing infants. Before many weeks were over, almost the only food to be had was soup or jelly made from ox hides-a most nauseating dish-and bones burned and ground to powder. The cold was intense; storm suc- ceeded storm, until the snow lay piled from fifteen to thirty feet in depth around the lake. Men became too weak to gather wood, so that starvation and cold together took pitiless toll of the luckless company. The horror and de- spair of those days cannot be told.
At length a party of nine men and six women left the main camp and made a desperate effort to reach Sutter's on foot. Thirty-two days later, five women and two men, the sole survivors of this "Forlorn Hope," reached Johnson's ranch near the present site of Wheatland in the Sacramento Valley. 1 The name of one of the camps of this party was in keeping with the whole of their terrible experience. It was called
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the "Camp of Death." Horrible as it is to relate, the mem- bers of the "Forlorn Hope " kept themselves from starving by eating the flesh of their dead companions, and even shot two faithful Indian guides (who had become so ex- hausted they could travel no further and were about to die), to serve the same grim need. The survivors could have lived in no other way.
Among the emigrants left at the lake, similar unspeakable conditions prevailed. Suffering, despair, and death walked daily through the camp. Human flesh was frequently eaten, and only the opportune arrival of rescue parties from Sutter's Fort saved any of the company alive. The first of these relief expeditions, consisting of seven men, reached the camp February 19. They had with them only a scant supply of food, which they carried on their own backs, since ani- mals could not get through the snow. With such of the company as seemed best able to make the journey, they immediately began the return, reaching Sutter's after the most harrowing experiences. Several emigrants who started back with this party died of starvation or utter exhaustion on the road. A second and third rescue expedition, each after a grimly heroic struggle, succeeded in saving a few of the survivors at the lake. But when the fourth party arrived at the encampment in April, it found only one of the original company alive. This man, about whom tradi- tion and gossip wove many a ghastly tale, escaped to the Sacramento Valley, only to live the rest of his days an out- cast from society.
Of the seventy-nine persons who began the winter in the Sierras, only forty-five survived. Even these survivors en- dured privations and suffering such as can scarcely be imagined. The story is the most tragic in California history, if not in all the annals of western emigration. In it were sordid, cowardly episodes. Petty quarrels, personal jeal- ousies, inefficiency, and vacillation played their part in its pitiful outcome. But side by side with these unattractive features, was a heroism, an unselfishness, a grim bravery, that make the story of the Donner party, especially because of
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the part played by its splendid women, synonymous with something more than tragedy. It is synonymous with the spirit of the pioneer.
Many of the sources used in the preparation of this chapter are referred to in the body of the text. For the Donner tragedy, the standard authorities are:
McGlashan, Charles Fayette, History of the Donner party, A tragedy of the Sierras. Truckee, California, 1879.
Houghton, Mrs. Eliza P., The expedition of the Donner party and its tragic fate. New York, 1911.
CHAPTER X
WILKES AND FREMONT, GOVERNMENT EXPLORERS
WHILE the emigrant movement to California was under way, as narrated in the previous chapter, two exploring expeditions sent out by the United States government were also doing their part toward making the province better known to the American public, and in various other ways aiding the cause of American settlement and ultimate annexation.
The first of these official expeditions to reach the coast was a naval squadron under command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. The undertaking had been planned as early as 1836, but for various reasons it could not be gotten under way until 1838. Six vessels, with an adequate force of men and a small company of highly trained scientists, made up the expedition.
Five years were spent in explorations throughout the Pacific and along the American coast. In the course of these explorations, part of Wilkes' fleet visited California, and it is with the details of this visit that the present narrative is alone concerned.
In the summer of 1841 the main body of the expedition reached the northwest coast. On a site, which in 1917 was destined to become a part of the great military canton- ment known as Camp Lewis, Wilkes held an elaborate Fourth of July celebration-the first of its kind, so it is said, to take place west of the Rocky Mountains.
After several months spent in exploring and charting the bays and harbors of the northwest coast, Wilkes pre- pared to continue his voyage to San Francisco. In the meantime, however, seventeen men were detached from the main expedition to travel overland to California. This party was placed under command of Lieutenant Emmons.
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A number of dissatisfied Oregon settlers, hoping to find conditions more to their liking in Mexican territory, also joined the company; but Emmons afterwards found their presence more a source of discord than of added strength.
Following the trail generally taken by the Hudson's Bay trappers on their expeditions to California, the exploring party traveled up the Willamette Valley; stopped one night at the log cabin of John Turner, former employee of Jede- diah Smith, whose gigantic strength had saved him from the Umpqua massacre; crossed the divide between the Willamette and the Umpqua; and finally found themselves upon the great upland plains around Mt. Shasta.
Though harassed by sickness, chiefly malaria, and men- aced by hostile Indians, Emmons next explored the courses of the Klamath and Rogue Rivers. By October 10 the com- pany found themselves out of the mountains and safely encamped in the upper reaches of the Sacramento Valley. Travelling southward, they reached the Feather River on the 17th of October, and on the 19th came to Sutter's Fort. A few days later the company rejoined the main command at San Francisco.
As a result of this overland expedition, much scientific data relating to the ethnology, geology, and botany of north- ern California was collected; and in addition, an accurate account of the route between Oregon and California was made available for the use of later immigrants coming into the province by way of the Columbia.
While the Emmons party was making its way from the Willamette to the Sacramento, Wilkes had come by sea to San Francisco. Here he spent much time in charting the bay and in visiting nearby points of interest. A small party under command of Lieutenant Ringgold also made an exten- sive survey of the Sacramento, going by launch and canoe to the head of navigation. Wilkes, as commander of the expedition, confined his own activities to the more settled regions around the Bay. Frequently availing himself of the hospitality of the Californians, and travelling from Sonoma and the Napa Valley to the Mission of Santa Clara and the
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Pueblo of San José, he succeeded in learning much about the social and economic life of the people; and in getting an insight, especially valuable to his government in later years, into the political conditions of the province.
As an enthusiast for California, Wilkes was somewhat of a disappointment. His report called attention to many shortcomings of the province and abounded in criticisms. The Californians were not cleanly or energetic enough to meet his approval. The priests were too much given to liquor; the winds of the Bay region proved extremely dis- agreeable; and the economic life of the province appeared most primitive and crude. In spite of these drawbacks, however, there were certain redeeming features which, even in Wilkes' eyes, made California a prize of great value. Among these were the wide diversity of soil and the adapt- ibility of the province to agriculture and cattle raising. The province's greatest asset, however, was the Bay of San Francisco, which Wilkes regarded as "one of the finest, if not the very best harbor in the world." It could easily be defended, he continued, and was ample enough to receive the combined naval forces of Europe.
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